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My pool has been green for too long, please help me!

Hello, My pool is green with no visibility. I've been at it for over a month. I found your forum and have been reading it every night.
I also bought a tf 100 test kit. I'm doing what was said in the "Green swamp to oasis forum" but had no change in over 7 days. I can only get about 45 min. to an hour of filter time before I have to back wash and recharge. I cleaned out the filter twice. In the begining I had a problem with clorine, CYA, and the sunshine, but now that's not the case (Rain). I have been to multiple pool stores, and I have talked too many different people, all giving me different answers. could you please help? thanks!
My Numbers Are:
As of 6/24/09 Am
FC=17
CC=2.0
TC=19.0
PH=7.2 (x4 days)
T/A=120 (x2 days, down from 170 and 140)
CYA= 50 and holding
Since the TFP I started using Borax, I was using Baking Soda and had a problem with a high T/A and normal PH.
I also use 12.5% clorine. I can't run the filter 24/7 do to the clogging. I also broke down and used a copper base (mustard algaecide)
Daily pool brushings
Thank You, Wally

Re: My pool has been green for too long, please help me!

Wally,

Constant use of high levels of chlorine will clear your pool. Stop trying all the periperal remedies and focus on bringing your FC up to 20ppm and then holding it there thru constant additions until your pool clears.

As the chlorine kills the algae, the dead algae will clog your filter so it must be constantly cleaned during this process. Understand that it is a process and not a one time dose of a magic ingredient that will make everything right.

You have apparently gathered this info from pool school but have not yet convinced yourself to take it seriously. Let me say it again......chlorine will clear your pool. As soon as you commit to holding it high enough long enough, the algae will die and the filter will start to filter out the dead algae. You must run your pump 24/7 and you must keep your filter clean....you have no choice if you want your pool to clear.

Not to be a jerk, but simply to emphasize what I am saying......chlorine at high levels (20ppm) and held at high levels will clear your pool. You must constantly clean the filter and replenish the chlorine and run the pump 24 hours daily.

Re: My pool has been green for too long, please help me!

Dave is right, you need to get your FC up to 20 and hold it there, with frequent chlorine additions. Try not to let the level drop.

Any way you can vacume to waste, bypassing your filter? YOu will lose a lot of water that way though.

Are you sure you have all solid organic waste out of the bottom? If you were to scoop blindly with a leaf rake or skimmer net, trying to remove it by hand you might make better progress. IF you have a bunch of gunk down there it would help explain why you aren't progressing.

Re: My pool has been green for too long, please help me!

Yes, I will keep my FC above the twenty level, I missed that one, I have plenty on hand. I got desparate with the Copper! will stop the copper. and yes I can vaccum with a second pump, I use a solid cover and when I took the cover off it was patchy green without leaves. When I backwash it is concentrated dark green, not white. Wally

Re: My pool has been green for too long, please help me!

With minimal visibilty, it is very possible that you have stuff in there that you don't even know about. I am convinced that is what held me back for so long. Even now, I vacuum mostly clean looking water but every once in a while, I clean out a basket of leaves and some very icky looking water with lots of little particles in it. Just keep at it.

The good news is, when you've gotten it where it needs to be, BBB is very easy to follow and you will have a beautiful, healthy pool.

Re: My pool has been green for too long, please help me!

Just to add my encouragement, I had your problem when I bought a house with a pool.
Then I found this site - Thank Goodness I did.
While I know very little I have learned the following
When In Doubt - ADD MORE BLEACH!
All the rest of the test numbers are almost irrelevant until you get the chlorine levels at least close
and a close to clean pool.
POP - Pool Owner Patience - Is the most valuable thing taught here.
SHOCKING the pool works - Scareing the pool does not - I kept adding another gallon then another gallon
Get those numbers over 20 then keep them there ---

NEVER VACUUM WHAT YOU CAN"T SEE!
I almost needed a plumber to clean out my lines once I filled them with gunk from vacuuming the unseen bottom
Use a Brush to push everything to the shallow end then use a leaf rake until it comes up empty

Re: My pool has been green for too long, please help me!

Wally,

Hang in there. I'm right with you -- relative noob, similar size pool, same region of the country, same algae problem, same time frame. One difference for me -- my CYA was way too high (100+) when I first came to this site, but through a partial drain/refill, several additional cycles of backwash/vacuums/refills, it's down to about 70 now, somewhat manageable (but still needs to get lower)

A few things I've learned:
1) Copper is a long term no-no, but it's in your pool now. It's in my pool too -- I started to use it before discovering this site. Copper does kill algae, and I started to see some results from that, it took a few days. But my results really accelerated when I shocked with bleach per the instructions on this site. There's not much I can do now about getting the copper out of my pool except for the same way I'm getting CYA out -- progressive drain and refills, whether intentional or as a side effect of backwashing/vacuuming/refilling. But in the meantime, copper will do some algae killing. Then do what you can to get it out or dilute it before the bad side effects (staining etc.) start to happen.
2) Overshoot a bit on your shock level. If the CYA/Cholorine chart says 20 ppm FC for a CYA of 50, go for 22 and hold it there like the folks here tell you to.
3) Find a place that will sell you a lot of chlorine bleach in the refillable containers (carboys I believe they are referred to in other threads on this forum). Doesn't matter if it's the cheapest, you just need it now -- can find the cheapest later when you get to maintenance mode. If you can find a place that will sell you 5 gallon refillable containers of 10% sodium hypochlorite, that's an easy way to get about 15 ppm chlorine into your pool in one shot (by my calculation, 1 gallon of 10% bleach with your size of pool will increase the FC by 3 ppm), without littering your garage/yard/shed/whatever with lots of empty bleach bottles.
4) Run the pump 24/7; as the water starts to clear and you can see bottom, vacuum the debris to waste and replace water as needed. This will also dilute the copper in the pool.

Hang in there brother, the advice on this forum really will work, just need lots of POP (pool owner patience), which is just one more thing you can't get at the pool store either...

If I've given you any bum advice, the mods or other posters who have more experience will set you straight.

Edit - sorry, forgot you can't run your filter 24/7 - I guess run it as much as practical until the problem clears.

Re: My pool has been green for too long, please help me!

Yet another testimonial about BBB working... I will also add that my experience w/ green pools is that a DE filter WILL clog up rapidly at first, but that each time you clean it as the algae start dying it will take a bit longer to clog up again...

Note that as pointed out in the pool school article on filters, you should not use as much DE to re-fill the filter after a backwash as you do when starting the filter from scratch... For instance my filter calls for 7 cans of DE on startup, but per the pool school article, I should only use 5.5 cans when backwashing... The reason is that backwashing doesn't remove all the DE, so if you add the full amount each time you will end up over loading the filter.

If you have a really filthy mess coming out of your filter or suspect that it might be overloaded, it MIGHT be a good idea to do a complete teardown on it, wash out the grids and get rid of all the dirty DE and then start over...